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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Why Walker’s Victory Matters

First—horror of horrors—Walker and the legislature required government employees to pay for part of their own pensions and health care, as most private-sector workers do.
Second, Walker limited the ability of most “public” unions to pursue collective bargaining for base pay, and he eliminated such bargaining for other perks. (Incidentally, as others have observed, even the progressive’s “progressive” FDR wrote that “the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”)
Third, and “what drove unions bonkers,” writes Shikha Dalmia, “was Walker’s refusal to withhold automatic dues from government employee paychecks and make these dues voluntary.” (Walker unfortunately “exempted cops and firefighter unions from this rule,” Dalmia adds.)